Bed bathing is a great way to ensure a bed bound individual stays clean and healthy. The thought of a bed bath may conjure images of sopping sheets and soapy bowls. But, bed bath time can be an elegant service more like a massage than a shower.

Pro bed bathers know that bed bath time is often the most interactive time for an individual who is no longer able to get up. Your loved one may not look forward to bathing time now, but with a few expert tricks, bath time can become a favorite activity for you both.

Get Your Loved One Comfortable

A bad bed bath feels like a hurried, jostled assault on the frazzled senses of your loved one. Some people have physical issues that make bathing extremely difficult and painful. It is important to cultivate a slower, attentive bathing experience. Everyone is different, so work with your loved one to find a comfortable position.

Prepare your space. Take inventory of what you need and gather your supplies before you involve your loved one. Make sure the room is comfortable and reduce distracting sights and sounds. Regularly check in with your loved one to make sure she is still comfortable.

Temperature Control

Every movie shower scene starts with a person starting the hot water to get the right temp and make the room inviting and comfortable. The same rules apply for bed baths. Increase the temperature in a chilly room. Remember how quickly damp skin feels cold. Elderly and ill people are more susceptible to changes in temperature, so take extra care with temperature control.

Remember to keep your loved one covered to maintain comfort. You can use a large beach towel or a special bath time blanket that you wash after the bed bath. Of course, regular towels make good covers and absorb water well. Your loved one might appreciate a quick tumble in the dryer to add warmth and loftiness.

Remember, people who are bed bound may have fragile skin, and difficulty healing. Bed bound individuals are also more likely to have communication limitations, so practice mindfulness when it comes to heat and comfort.

Check the temperature of any products and water you use. Cold water on warm sensitive body parts is shocking and unpleasant. Water cools quickly and may feel colder to your loved one than you realize.

Using the Right Products

There are several lines of products created specifically for bed bathing.  Hospice companies may supply personal care supplies made for bed bathing. And, you can find products via Amazon or at your local drug store.

Some of the most helpful products are no rise personal care products. You can find no rinse shampoo caps. These fantastic tools heat in the microwave and fit over your loved one’s hair. You simply massage the scalp through the cap and wipe away the residue for a waterless shampoo.

You can also find disposable body wipes. A wipe warmer comes in handy to keep wipe temperatures comfortable.

Good Drying Techniques

A great bed bath is often determined by the quality of your drying. If you have ever tried to pull a pair of pants up over your damp skin, you know the sensation is unpleasant and difficult. Areas that are left warm and damp are susceptible to irritation. You want to protect your loved one from an itchy damp skin, and practice careful drying. Here are tips to make you a drying pro:

• Use a dry towel, and replace often
• Be gentle – dab, don’t rub
• Be thorough – dry under skin folds and between toes, look for damp skin
• Make sure hair is dry before removing protective layers

Assess the Body and Clean Thoroughly

Bath time is the perfect time to evaluate the health of your loved one’s skin. People who are bed bound are especially prone to skin break down, rashes, and swelling. Pressure sores develop from long term pressure. They often appear as areas of discoloration and will turn into open ulcers if not address.

If you notice areas of discoloration, work with your loved one to find positions that avoid the area. Skin cleanliness and care play a role in bed sore prevention. Common sore areas are on the butt area, back of arms, and heals.

Check feet and toes for swelling and toenail growth. Foot care is regular maintenance. Make note of swelling and changes in body appearance, and pay attention to small areas like armpits, behind ears, and eye areas. When you are washing your loved one start from her head and work your way down. Thoroughly clean every area and then recover body part with towels or blankets.

Wrap Up

You have the opportunity to luxuriate over your loved one during bath time. Prepare for bath time by collecting your supplies and ensuring your loved one’s comfort.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of your loved one. If you were receiving the bed bath, what kind of treatment would you want? Would you feel comfortable with the temperature and techniques? Sometimes care responsibilities feel like check-list tasks. Try to look at bed bath time as a bonding gift for you both.

We have all heard stories of elderly loved ones losing thousands at the hands of unscrupulous people. Or, meet families torn apart over disputes about “mom’s ring”. Someone has to manage the finances and property of the disabled or departed. That is where professional fiduciary services shine. Fiduciaries are licensed pros who are legally bound to put the needs of their clients above their own.

Conflict is a part of any family. But, conflict that occurs during an highly emotional time like a serious illness or death can leave lasting scars. Using professional fiduciary services offers some very real benefits.

Fiduciary Services Serve as an Impartial Third Party

While you may be a whiz at managing your own life and money, there is a steep learning curve to managing the life and finances of another. When you manage another person’s personal business a lot of legal and ethical considerations appear. Inexperienced trustee’s and POA’s might feel overwhelmed by the time consumption of these roles. The pressure rarely lets up as the level of care increases and after a person passes significant work still remains.

Fiduciaries are required by law to act in the client’s best interest. Because they are licensed professionals, and have no interest in the inheritance, they administer assets according to the client’s wishes. Professional fiduciaries reduce the risk of conflict and legal disputes.

When your loved one begins to make plans about his final wishes, he may feel uncomfortable sharing intimate detail about personal finances and final wishes. A professional fiduciary can have these pointed discussions without the history of conflict and expectation family members may have.

Fiduciaries are Skilled at Managing Finances

According to Bryan Fiorito, fiduciary at Exclusive Estate Administration, “Great certified licensed professional fiduciaries have great systems in place to ensure client’s interests are protected. Because asset inventory is so important, the best companies will use a third party to create detailed asset reports.”

You can image the chance for abuse when the same person inventories, manages, and accounts for assets. Great fiduciaries focus on creating accountability.

Fiduciary services often include bill pay and trust and estate administration. These duties can get complex. Choosing a licensed, insured, and bonded fiduciary offers more protection. You want someone experienced in trust administration. Naturally, you wouldn’t want to go to a first-time hairdresser or mechanic. You can see how education, license requirements, and experience make a big difference in asset and money management.

Help Lighten Care Responsibilities for Adult Children

Serving as a trustee and power of attorney can create the equivalent of a full-time job.  By naming a licensed fiduciary to serve in these roles, this removes the burden from your children.

When a fiduciary fills the management role, you can focus on quality time with your loved one. You can avoid sensitive subjects like finances, budgeting, driving restrictions, or selling of large assets like a house to afford assisted living/memory care.

Most fiduciaries are experienced with aging. They work with trusted companies to address any needs that arise. Fiduciaries take the spotlight off of one adult child appointed as the trustee and/or power of attorney. This simple transfer of responsibility from appointed adult child to professional fiduciary protects the family from additional conflict between siblings.

Fiduciaries Fulfill a Person’s Wishes After Death

A fiduciary, by law, is required to act in a client’s best interest.  It is her job to ensure her client’s wishes are carried out exactly as intended. Fiduciaries work with clients and their families to ensure there is a funeral pre-plan in place. And, they ensure the distribution of assets in accordance to the client’s wishes. Sometimes people wish to leave their legacy in different ways via charitable giving. Fiduciaries carry out the wishes of thier clients.

Fiduciaries Can Help Arrange Health Care

Sometimes people need someone to manage health care decisions. If you live out of the area, a fiduciary service ensures your loved one’s needs are meet without your travel and direct oversight during every event. Fiduciaries can enforce a person’s healthcare wishes including advanced directives. They can help arrange home care and health services as needed when appointed as conservator of the person or power of attorney. Fiduciaries often work with care managers to ensure optimum wellbeing of thier clients.

For more information about San Diego home care check out this article: San Diego Home Care – Everything You Need to Know.

Wrap Up

When you work with fiduciary services, you create a crisis prevention and management team. Fiduciaries offer guidance, legal protection, and expert support. They are especially important for people with complicated estates, health conditions, or little local support. Consider bringing a fiduciary onto your team.

Providing excellent care for another person is not always an easy task.

However, the good news is that there are simple practices you can incorporate into your daily routine that will make you an even better caregiver. These are also traits to look for in caregivers you will work with from any home care agency.

In this post, we will uncover 5 practices of the best caregivers.  This should help you spot the best caregivers for your loved one. 

1. Lifelong Learners

Acting as a lifelong learner takes many forms. The best caregivers know that there is no end to learning new skills and care techniques. Research in the medical field around caregiving and its’ best practices constantly changes and evolves.

You don’t have to read voluminous research articles to keep up to date on these new advances. The US News and Health Report for instance has a Senior Health section you can refer to for up-to-date and yet simplified information on advances in senior care. A quick daily skim of the headlines in such publications should keep you abreast with the best knowledge.

Another way to learn is to take continuing education classes. Find out if your local community college, fire department, public health department or even your favorite in home care provider has continuing education classes that help you sharpen your skills as a caregiver.

2. A “Can Do” Attitude

Growth happens when we are willing to move outside our comfort zones.

In a study by Angela Duckworth , she found that talented school children who lacked what she calls “grit” – passion and perseverance to follow through with an original goal – were more likely to not reach their highest potential. Children who were less talented yet possessed perseverance to overcome obstacle often performed better.

This idea of “grit” does not apply to children alone !

Having an attitude that says “we can overcome any challenge we face” puts a caregiver in a state of mind to keep learning and trying new things. It is also this kind of grit that allows you to work with your family and home care agency as a team to arrive at the best care solutions for your loved one.

3.  A Great Communicator

The best caregivers are also great communicators. It is imparitive a caregiver share observations and communicate changes in your loved one’s behavior, physical, or mental conditions.

It is a best practice to keep a daily note log to record activities, medication reminders, and important observations.

PLEASE NOTE : If you are not the primary caregiver, then it is extremely important to look for this particular trait in your in-home caregivers. Great communication could save the life of your loved one.

4. Proper Lifting Techniques

Improper lifting techniques lead to a myriad of life long health problems. If you have a loved one who has impaired mobility, it is important that you learn proper lift and transfer techniques so that you do not inadvertently injure yourself trying to help him.

Use a transfer or gait belt to help you transfer or lift your loved one. Here is an overview of how to use one.

• Put the gait belt around the client’s waist over his/her clothing and buckle it properly in the front
• Ensure the belt is snug with just enough room underneath to maneuver your fingers
• Keeping your back straight, bend your knees and grip the belt tightly
• Lift or move the client using your arm and leg muscles
• Transfer client into the appropriate position
• Remove the gait belt once the transfer is complete

Practice lifting with your knees and elbows and the proper use of your center of gravity. You want to avoid lifting with your back muscles.

If you decide to purchase a Hoyer Lift to assist with movements, please make sure to receive proper training on the equipment to avoid any accidents. If your loved one is on Medicare, part of the cost of a Hoyer Lift may be covered if prescribed by a doctor.

Practicing better lifting techniques protects you and your loved one.

5. A Caregiver is Completely Dependable

Reliability is a key attribute of the best caregivers! Often, people who receive care cannot be left alone. Dependable caregivers communicate possible schedule conflicts ahead of time, and make sure the wellbeing of their charge is first priority.

Great caregivers never want to cause stress for their clients or client’s family members. They understand others depend on them, and need to count on scheduled times.

Closing Thoughts

In this post, you have been introduced to the 5 best practices for caregivers: whether that is you or a hired caregiver.

Did you find this post useful ? Bookmark it or share it with someone who might need it.

Caregivers as a whole are loving and generous people who feel called to serve the elderly population.

Unfortunately, seniors are at an increased risk for fraud and theft. Of course, you would only hire someone you like and trust.

However, setting up your loved one’s home correctly helps protect your loved one and his caregiver.

It is not uncommon for people with dementia to misplace items or forget conversations and gestures of kindness. This also makes them easy to exploit.

The bad news is that caregiver theft is real.

The good news? There are proactive steps you can take to protect your elderly loved ones against caregiver theft.

In this post, we will go over 5 safeguards that will help in preventing caregiver theft.

1. Protect Your Financial Information and Interests

When working with a caregiver, make sure that payment, hours, and job responsibilities are clear and agreed upon at the beginning of the caregiver-client relationship. This ensures that there is no confusion about when and how a caregiver is paid.

It will also eliminate grey areas that might lead to feelings of unmet expectations. Good communication and expectation setting goes a long way in preventing caregiver theft.

Alternatively, if you work with a caregiver through a home care agency like Green Tree Home Care, the agency assumes the employer relationship. The agency pays the caregiver and provides a framework for job roles and responsibilities.

A second precaution here is to never share access to bank accounts or security questions – no matter how much trust you may have built with the caregiver. Bank account usernames and passwords written on notes and checkbooks lying around the house are also a big no.

Thankfully, bill pay products that allow bills to be paid automatically each month are easily available through the bank. Setting up bill pay for your loved one through their bank (or yours if you are the one paying) will ensure that utilities and services keep running while financial information is protected.

If you are unable to personally handle finances for your elderly loved one and they are currently mentally incapable of doing so, in the state of California, you can hire a professional, licensed fiduciary to handle that.

Keep Housing Interests Separate

It is important to not roll housing into the compensation plan of a caregiver. This blurs compensation lines and creates legal issues should the caregiver-client relationship go sour.

In California, the law heavily protects renters. This means that in a situation where the relationship has gone bad, you may have to go through a costly and long eviction process. If housing is offered at all, there should be a clear agreement or contract that is signed by both parties as to what that entails. There should also be a second contract that outlines the caregiver agreement.

The bottom line here is to ensure that financial lines not be blurred during the relationship with a caregiver.

2. Do Not Keep Precious Items or Cash on Hand

If you currently live apart from your elderly loved one, it is advisable to inventory all precious/expensive items and check them into a bank safety deposit box.

Large amounts of cash should also be kept away or deposited at the bank. If your loved one prefers cash, it is important to keep a ledger and track outgoing cash regularly.

Alternatively, you can use an in-home safe to store some expensive items and cash.

3. Consider Installing Cameras

Installing in-home surveillance cameras can help deter theft. Cameras also help when following up on concerns and missing items.

4. Practice a “No Guests” Rule

Insist on a no guest rule at the beginning of your caregiver-client relationship.

Friends and family of the caregiver who are not a part of the caregiver-client relationship should not come into the home under any circumstance. You trust the caregivers you work with, but limiting the amount of traffic is important in preventing caregiver theft.

Another safeguard you can employ is to have caregivers log visitors who come into the home. Information should include guests’ name, the time they came in, and the time they left. You may also want to record the reason for the visit if it isn’t too intrusive for your loved one.

5. Have Oversight from an Agency 

The beauty of working with a home care agency is the added oversight the agency provides over their caregiver employees.

You also have the opportunity to discuss any safety concerns you may have with the home care agency. At Green Tree Home Care for instance, you can reach somebody on the phone 24/7 if you have any concerns.

Occasional visits by a caregiver supervisor is also helpful to ensure that concerns are addressed, and caregivers are changed if need be.

Closing Thoughts

This post is not meant to undermine the great work many caregivers do across the country for their clients. In fact a peek into our testimonials will show that most caregivers have the best interest of the client at heart.

Unfortunately, a few bad nuts have made it such that precautions have to be taken to prevent caregiver theft.

In this post, we provided five best practices to reaching this goal while maintaining a healthy caregiver-client relationship.

Did you find this post helpful?

Bookmark it in your browser or share it with someone so we can all prevent unnecessary losses.

Mom is always losing her keys. Dad keeps forgetting when his Doctors appointments are.  Everyone has moments of forgetfulness. But, when should you feel concerned your loved one is experiencing more than just your average mind lapses.  Below are 5 warning signs of dementia your loved one, and it might be time to bring the topic to light.

1. Your Loved One has Trouble with Short Term Memory Recall

Often, short-term memory loss is one of the first signs of dementia. While we all forget little things, a person with dementia risks life threatening lapses in memory. Stoves left on, plastic in the oven, or the inability to find home can lead to unsafe incidents. Your loved one may struggle with communication. Sometimes people struggle to recall everyday words. If your loved one is becoming a little forgetful, don’t rush to conclusions. Forgetfulness happens, it is a concern when it affects your loved one’s safety or ability to care for herself.

2.    Your Loved One Has Out of Character Anxiety

Dementia affects everyone differently. But, there are some commonalities people share. Changes in behavior such as aggression or increased confusion may happen toward the end of the day. This behavior is referred to as “sundowning” or “late-day confusion.” If you notice behavior changes in your loved one look for time patterns, and shifts in regular routines.

3.    Your Loved One is Withdrawing

Your loved one has started to show signs of social withdrawal. They have lost interest in activities or hobbies they once loved. They are not engaging with the world around them and they are sleeping more. Dementia patients can show signs of withdrawal for many reasons. Depression, loss of verbal communication skills, confusion, and feelings of isolation can all play a factor in you loved one withdrawing. Sometimes people withdraw because location changes and gatherings feel overwhelming and difficult to keep up with.

4.    Your Loved One is Asking the Same Question Repeatedly

Your loved one continually repeats or ask the question over and over again. Repetitive behaviors are common in dementia patients. They may repeat the same story, ask the same question, or even continually perform the same task. Short term memory loss is common in people with dementia, and may increase repetitive behaviors.

5.    Rapid Weight Loss

A lack if interest or difficulty in eating is a good sign that something has changed with your loved one’s health. With dementia, rapid weight loss can happen as the illness progresses. Dementia related weightloss may have many factors. The mind does not read the cues the body tells it. Your loved one may feel depressed and no longer have an interest in eating. He may not remember to eat or when he ate last due to short term memory loss. There may be cognitive changes in how he recognizes food as appetizing.

Who to Call

Loved ones suffering from dementia can display many signs. If you are concerned that you loved one showing these five signs of dementia you should consult with her Doctor. While an occasional mental hiccup be normal, it is a good idea to speak with a medical professional if your loved one has several of these tendencies.

For more information on services available for helping take care of your loved one suffering from dementia please click here.